Notification of the decision (service of the decision)

It is very important that you give us your exact contact information in your application so that we will be able to notify you when we have made a decision.

Did you apply for your first residence permit?

If you used the e-service to submit your application:

You will receive a message in the e-service Enter Finland when a decision has been made.

If you submitted your application on paper:

If you submitted your application abroad, you will be informed of the decision by the Finnish mission (embassy or consulate) that you have selected in your application as your service point.

If you submitted your application in Finland, you will be informed about the decision by the police, or the Finnish Immigration Service will inform you about it by post.

A sponsor living in Finland will be informed about the decision by post.

If you applied for a residence permit for an employed person, you will receive a residence permit decision and a partial decision from the work permit unit of the Employment and Economic Development Office (TE Office). Your employer will also be informed of the decision. Your employee will always be notified at least of the partial decision.

Did you apply for an extended residence permit?

If you used the e-service to submit your application:

You will receive a message in the e-service Enter Finland when a decision has been made.

If you submitted your application on paper:

If you are in Finland, you will be informed about the decision by the police, or the Finnish Immigration Service will inform you about it by post.

Did you apply for asylum?

When the Finnish Immigration Service has made a decision on your asylum application, you will be informed about it by the Finnish Immigration Service or the police.

The decision will be served to you in your mother tongue or another language that you understand. If necessary, we will use an interpreter or a translator when we serve the decision to you.

Did you apply for a travel document?

The Finnish Immigration Service will send a decision as a registered letter to the address that you have given to us. If it is a positive decision, you will receive your travel document at the same time.

In this case, ‘travel document’ means an alien’s passport or a refugee travel document.

Did you apply for Finnish citizenship?

If you submitted your application on paper:

The Finnish Immigration Service will inform you about the decision by post.

Some decisions in paper form are sent with advice of delivery. This means that you need to collect your decision from a post office.

If you used the e-service to submit your application:

You will receive a message in the e-service Enter Finland when a decision has been made.